Friday, July 25, 2008

Some individuals in San Francisco are promoting a November 2008 ballot initiative for renaming an award-winning sewage treatment plant the "George W. Bush Sewage Plant." Amusingly, the idea was hatched in a bar --where else, given the hee-hee factor. The group has named itself Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco. Click here for the "International Herald Tribune" story on the push: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/25/america/bush.php

In more recent news, John McCain has ignored 5,000 journalists. Odd, since you'd think that he'd want more attention for himself in this Barack Obama-focused week. Alas, the group is the convention of UNITY: Journalists of Color. Apparently, he is skippting a meeting of journalists of African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American and Native American background.

You would think that McCain would enjoy showing up Obama in his backyard of Chicago, where the convention is meeting. And what about the Grand Old Party's claim to be a party of diversity? (Remember the [pandering] showcasing of African-Americans in the 2000 Republican National Convention?) President Bush appeared at the 2004 UNITY convention. --But not McCain; hmmmm. See Teresa Puente blog's "McCain ignores 5,000 journalists" from yesterday's "Chicago Sun-Times": http://blogs.suntimes.com/backtalk/2008/07/mccain-ignores-5000-journalist.html

Well, well. Barack Obama has raked in the media attention. The media pundits and the talk radio crowd lambasted Obama for not being strong enough in foreign matters or the Middle East in particular. Yet, once he showed up in the Middle East and started garnering (favorable) media attention then they cry foul! Europe, or at least Berlin, loves Obama. 200,000 or 250,000 at the Brandenburg Gate!

Here are some links to reports on his uplifting speech about avoiding walls of social division: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25825692/

Montags of the World: Resist!

"That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also."

Apocrophal words of Heinrich Heine (1821) for the 20th, 21st century

On the occasion of the trashing of the Occupy Wall Street Library:"Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen."("That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also.")